Paul Stewart: Slashing Mandate Dialed Down... No Suprise

Great article today, Paul. Goalie equipment has come a long ways in protecting the player, but skaters equipment has just gotten lighter and smaller.

Great article today, Paul. Goalie equipment has come a long ways in protecting the player, but skaters equipment has just gotten lighter and smaller.

Paul Stewart: Slashing Mandate Dialed Down... No Suprise

The real elephant in the room here is the question of why there are so many hand and wrist injuries on slashes nowadays and why so many players do it. It's not as simple as "refs dropped the ball on calling it." Rather, it's because today's gloves are not sufficiently protective
- Paul Stewart

HUH???

Call the damn penalty, It should never be allowed. Slashing is a penalty.

There must have been a lot of broken wrists back in the 20s, 30s & 40s, when gloves weren't much more than leather over cardboard.

Or, the players didn't slash each other because it was illegal.

Blaming the equipment doesn't address the fact that players should respect each other, and not try to deliberately injure each other.

Perhaps they can skate a little faster on the back check, and lift the stick instead of slashing the hands.

Every time the officials let the cement heads get away with things, it takes away from the speed and ability of the more skilled players.

There must have been a lot of broken wrists back in the 20s, 30s & 40s, when gloves weren't much more than leather over cardboard.

Or, the players didn't slash each other because it was illegal.

Blaming the equipment doesn't address the fact that players should respect each other, and not try to deliberately injure each other.

Perhaps they can skate a little faster on the back check, and lift the stick instead of slashing the hands.

Every time the officials let the cement heads get away with things, it takes away from the speed and ability of the more skilled players.
- scottak

Ever shake hands with an old time player? I met plenty. Many of them had gnarled hands. My grandfather refereed in the NHL in that era, and coached the Black Hawks to the Stanley Cup in between.

BTW, some of the worst offenders I ever saw with stickwork were the skill players.

There must have been a lot of broken wrists back in the 20s, 30s & 40s, when gloves weren't much more than leather over cardboard.

Or, the players didn't slash each other because it was illegal.

Blaming the equipment doesn't address the fact that players should respect each other, and not try to deliberately injure each other.

Perhaps they can skate a little faster on the back check, and lift the stick instead of slashing the hands.

Every time the officials let the cement heads get away with things, it takes away from the speed and ability of the more skilled players.
- scottak

Paul loves the cement heads. He feels they can make up for their lack of skill by taking cheap shots on the star players and it's all fine and dandy

HUH???

Call the damn penalty, It should never be allowed. Slashing is a penalty.
- ggunky

I agree. Blaming slashing injuries on the equipment not being good enough is a cop out. If you use your stick to hit another player whether on the hand, the leg, the head whatever a penalty should be called. I have no issue if your allowed to use your stick to tap another players stick.


As far as the refs now scaling back on calling slashing and the faceoff circle penalties is no surprise. Every year it seems something is introduced and then stopped being called. I am sure the players even laugh behind closed doors knowing something won't last. Don't blame the players for trying to find every edge they can to win games. It's not not really the refs fault as they are told from their supervisors what to do.

playing devils advocate, these are crosby's gloves. granted they are CCM now and not Reebok. those are very protective gloves.

Agree that equipment may be playing a part in some of the injuries being worse than they otherwise would be, but that does not address the actual cause. Watching almost any play when a team has sustained offensive zone pressure, you'll see tons of whacks on the hands, because the players can get away with it.
if they slash the stick and it breaks, it's penalized 99% of the time. With the hands it is 1% of the time, so players adjust to what they can get away with. The game would be much better off for penalizing the cause, rather than focusing on how to limit the effect.

I didn't realize it was the fault of all the shooting victims in Chicago for not wearing body armor that appropriately covered all vital areas.



Leave it to the NHL old school to not understand that people don't want to see this slashing and scoring is what draws fans and a high paced game.

Now in the US, we wonder why this is a niche sport.

All that needs to happen is call the rule book the way its written and be done with. Guys will learn not to slash very quickly when they get benched.

The answer isn't lets change to gloves that restrict the players making the game even more boring because a guy can't dangle the way he should be able to.

I didn't realize it was the fault of all the shooting victims in Chicago for not wearing body armor that appropriately covered all vital areas.



Leave it to the NHL old school to not understand that people don't want to see this slashing and scoring is what draws fans and a high paced game.

Now in the US, we wonder why this is a niche sport.
- gcomella34

I have to think only idiots don't realize why the NHL is a niche sport in the USA.

Everyone can clearly see the NHL really is the ones making the NHL harder to watch every year.

All that needs to happen is call the rule book the way its written and be done with. Guys will learn not to slash very quickly when they get benched.

The answer isn't lets change to gloves that restrict the players making the game even more boring because a guy can't dangle the way he should be able to.
- Lahey

agreed. and that part of the blog is confusing because on one hand all the other equipment is too protective. to the point of being weapons. but the gloves need to go back to late 70's construction?

agreed. and that part of the blog is confusing because on one hand all the other equipment is too protective. to the point of being weapons. but the gloves need to go back to late 70's construction?
- Niatnouf

I do personally think guys on the PK should be using wood sticks and better gloves, but that's just for a small part of the game and more so because I've seen it haunt the Oilers over the years.

I have no problem with any kind of stick contact with the gloves being called. Even soft taps. It's not that hard to keep your stick down below the gloves.

I do personally think guys on the PK should be using wood sticks and better gloves, but that's just for a small part of the game and more so because I've seen it haunt the Oilers over the years.
- Lahey

nah. the gloves are fine. just because they aren't leather does not make them weak. and some guys may customize them that way but they always have.